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2022 Mitsubishi Outlander leaks via photo shoot

The 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander is making the rounds on social media this week after being spotted at a photo shoot, confirming a design we first saw in Geneva last year.  Mitsubishi's new crossover was spotted staging for photos by an anonymous photographer, who snapped a few choice shots and shared them with allcarnews on Instagram. The quality of the photos is far from fantastic, but there's enough detail to confirm that the new Outlander will be an almost direct lift of the Engelberg Tourer Concept which Mitsubishi showed in Geneva last year. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. There's also an obvious resemblance to the Outlander prototype caught in spy photos last year. The production model appears to retain the concept's discrete roof panel (which makes it ideal for contrasting colors like those on the show car) and the chipmunk-cheek styling around the headlights. The concept was ostensibly powered by a plug-in hybrid system (like the one found in the current Outlander PHEV, but with a 2.4-liter inline-4 engine rather than a 2.0-liter unit). Electric range was an estimated 43 miles, which also improves on the existing Outlander PHEV's 22 miles. The powertrain for non-hybrid Outlanders is more of a mystery. Reports from earlier this year suggest that the gasoline version could share powertrains with Nissan, which still owns a controlling stake in Mitsubishi. In exchange, Mitsubishi would supply its PHEV for the small Nissan Qashqai crossover, which is sold in the United States as the Rogue Sport. If that happens, and assuming Nissan brings it here, the Rogue Sport would be Nissan's first PHEV in the U.S. Related Video:

Renault's planned luxury sub-brand gets reconsidered

Renault believes there's enough Alpine love to restart that brand with its own model almost immediately. The launch of the Initiale Paris luxury brand it's been mulling, on the other hand, will be more restrained: a report in Autocar says that instead of launching with a first model based on the Mercedes E-Class architecture, Renault is going to introduce an Initiale Paris trim line on the new Clio and Espace. More accurately, that should be 're-introduce and aggressively market,' since Renault has used an Initiale Paris trim over the years since it introduced the concept car (pictured) in 1995, even as recently as the current-generation Laguna Coupe.
Other models will be added after the Clio and Espace, and when Renault can assess what kind of future the trim has, it will decide on the launch of a subsidiary brand. Company CEO Carlos Tavares said we shouldn't hang around waiting for a decision, though, declaring that establishing such a brand - if it even comes to that - "will be a job for at least my successor to worry about, not me."

Ghosn: 'We are getting there' on making Nissan Leaf profitable

After 19 months in a row of record sales in the US, the money picture for the Nissan Leaf is steadily improving. To date (well, until the end of September), Nissan has sold 63,944 Leaf EVs in the US and a total of around 140,000 globally. The company produces the electric vehicle in three countries: Japan, the UK and the US and has sold more standard passenger EVs than any other automaker. Add all that up and you get to an EV that is just about to be profitable. "We are getting into positive, which is good for this technology." – Carlos Ghosn At least, it is according to Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Renault-Nissan, who spoke to reporters at that Paris Motor Show this week. "We are getting there [to Leaf profitability]," Ghosn told Automotive News. "Are we amortizing and depreciating everything we have spent? No. But if you look at margin of profit – the direct cost of the car and the revenue of the car – we are getting into positive, which is good for this technology." Automakers are notoriously closemouthed when it comes to sharing specifics about the higher cost of alternative vehicle technologies compared to standard ICE vehicles. Still, statements like this – as well as a knowledge about how long it took Toyota to make money from the Prius and overall industry amortization – show that Nissan could well be sitting pretty when it comes to keeping EVs around for the long term. Given some of the other news we've heard recently, it's got to be nice to have some stability.